Hayden holds the record for the highest score made by an Australian batsman in Tests (380). His innings of 201 against India in Chennai remains the 2nd highest score by an Australian in India. He formed one of the most prolific opening partnerships in world Test cricket for Australia with Justin Langer,[2] and in ODI cricket with Adam Gilchrist. Upon his retirement, in January 2009, Hayden's Test average was 50.7; he had scored the second most runs in Test cricket by an opening batsman; and was equal 6th (with Jacques Kallis) on the all-time list for Test centuries.Hayden holds the record for the highest individual test score by an opening batsman in test history(380).[3]

Hayden made his debut for the Australian team in the 4–8 March 1994 Test Match against South Africa in Johannesburg, scoring 15 and 5.[6] His next Test selection was in the 1996–97 season, with three tests each against the West Indies and South Africa. He made his maiden century (125 against the West Indies in Adelaide), but averaged only 21.7 for the series with two ducks. He was dropped from the team, as the selectors favoured other openers, in particular Mark Taylor and Matthew Elliott, for the next few years. At the time, he was compared occasionally to Graeme Hick, a fine domestic performer but not quite good enough to make it at the highest level.

During these years, Hayden was a prolific batsman for the Queensland first-class cricket team. Weight of domestic cricket runs, and persistence, resulted in a resurrection of his international career for the 1999–2000 tour of New Zealand. In the subsequent 2000–01 tour of India, he scored 549 runs, an Australian record for a three-Test series, at 109.80.Before the 2001 India tour, Hayden averaged 24.36 from 13 Tests, with one century. After that, he was an automatic selection for the Test side. He scored over 1,000 Test runs in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, the first man to achieve the feat five times. He was selected as one of Wisden's five 2003 Cricketers of the Year.

In the first innings of the First Test against Zimbabwe on 10 October 2003 at the WACA, Hayden scored 380 runs from only 437 balls to set a new world record for an individual Test innings, passing the previous record of Brian Lara (375), set in April 1994. Hayden's total remained the record until 12 April 2004, when Lara scored 400 not out. As of December 2011, it remains the second-highest innings in Test history, and is the highest ever by an Australian.

Hayden suffered a considerable form-slump towards the end of 2004, and went for sixteen consecutive tests without scoring a century. This continued into the highly anticipated 2005 Ashes, where Hayden averaged only 35.33 across the five-match series, which put pressure on his position in the team; a hard-fought 138 from 303 balls in the Fifth Test at The Oval arguably saved his career. This signalled a return to form for Hayden for the 2005/06 season, and he scored centuries in four consecutive Tests, including the Oval Test, then home Tests against the ICC World XI and West Indies.

Hayden's form in the 2006-07 Ashes series against England was average; he failed to reach 40 in the first three innings of the series, but again returned to form with scores of 92 in Perth, and 153 in the Boxing Day Test.

He performed well in the 2007–2008 summer against India, aggregating over 400 runs with three centuries in the four tests-series, to bring his career total to thirty centuries. In the first test at Melbourne, Hayden scored his 28th test century (124).[7] In the second test against India at Sydney, Hayden scored his 29th test century (123) in his 93rd test match to equal Bradman's haul of 29 test tons.[8] He missed the third test at Perth due to hamstring soreness, in which India defeated Australia to break the journey of Australia's consecutive 16 test victories. In the fourth test against India at Adelaide, Hayden scored 30th test century (103) in his 94th test match, to surpass Donald Bradman's haul.[9][10][11][12][13] With this knock, Hayden took his career aggregate to 8,242, scored at an average of 53.51. He has also scored 27 half-centuries in 94 Tests. Hayden became the third Australian, after Donald Bradman (four centuries in five Tests in 1947–48) and David Boon (three tons in five Tests in 1991–92) to register three or more hundreds in a Test series against India. Hayden has recorded three or more centuries in successive Tests three times. Apart from this 2007–2008 series against India, during the 2001–02 season, Hayden registered four centuries in successive Tests against South Africa, at Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Johannesburg. Hayden repeated the feat of four hundreds in successive Tests between 2005 and 2005–06 with centuries against England at The Oval in 2005, against a World XI at Sydney, and against the West Indies at Brisbane and Hobart in 2005–06.

The 2008–09 season was Hayden's final season of Test cricket. In nine Tests against India, New Zealand and South Africa, Hayden managed only 383 runs at 23.94, with two half-centuries and three ducks. His career ended when he was dropped from the ODI Australian team. Soon after Hayden announced his retirement from all international and first class cricket prior to the tour of South Africa in 2008–09. His place was filled by young New South Wales opener Phillip Hughes. He finished his test career with 8625 runs at an average of 50.73.

Hayden's most notable opening batting partner was Justin Langer. The opening pair represented Australia in more than 100 Test innings.[14] The pair made 5654 runs while batting together in opening partnerships, with an average of 51 runs per partnership; as of December 2011, only Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes of the West Indies have scored more Test runs as an opening partnership, with 6,482.[15]

Hayden was a regular and successful slip fielder for Australia, and he took 128 catches during his Test career.

Hayden played as an opening batsman in the Australian team in 160 One Day Internationals throughout his career. He made his ODI debut for Australia in 1993 against England, but after playing 13 ODIs in 1993 and 1994, he was dropped from the team until 2000.

Hayden survives an appeal for a stumping by MS Dhoni in his last ODI, March 2008.

On 20 February 2007, Matthew Hayden posted his highest ODI score (181 not out) against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton. It was the highest ODI innings ever by an Australian which at the time gave him the unique distinction of holding both the test and ODI record scores for an Australian batsman until it was broken by Shane Watson's 185* in 2011.[16] His knock of 181* is the second highest ODI innings in a losing cause in ODI history just after Charles Coventry's 194*.[17]

He dominated the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies the tournament's best batsman, scoring three centuries before the completion of the Super 8s section of the tournament; he was only the third person (the previous being Mark Waugh and Sourav Ganguly). The century against South Africa came off just 66 balls and broke John Davison's record for the fastest century in a World Cup.[18] The Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis awarded Hayden with honorary citizenship after the match. His record was broken by Irish batsman Kevin O'Brien in the 2011 World Cup when he struck a century off of 50 balls against England. Hayden also became only the second player in World Cup history to surpass 600 runs in a single tournament; he scored 659 runs for the tournament at an average of 73.22. In September 2007, Hayden was named ODI Player of the Year after his dominating performance throughout the World Cup.[19]

Hayden played Sheffield Shield cricket for Queensland, playing 101 matches, and scoring 8831 runs at an average of 54.85. He also played in the English County Championship, first with Hampshire in 1997 and prominently as captain of Northamptonshire in 1999–2000; his County record is 3461 runs at 55.82. Hayden's first class career yielded 24,603 runs at an average of 52.57.

Hayden played nine Twenty20 Internationals for Australia, including the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. He was the tournament's top scorer, with 265 runs.

Matthew Hayden played for the Chennai Super Kings in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) in April 2008, contracted for $375,000. Hayden became one of the foremost players in the league, and in 2009 won the Orange Cap as the season's highest run-scorer, with 572.

In 2011–12, Hayden resigned from his positions on the Queensland and Australian cricket boards to take part for the Brisbane Heat in Australia's Big Bash League.

On 11 March 2010, Hayden announced his intention to use the Mongoose Cricket Bat, a bat specially tailored to the needs of Twenty20 cricket, during the 2010 IPL. Reactions to the bat were mixed. Stuart Law said that he would think 'twice' before using the Mongoose, while MS Dhoni said in his column that he believed in Hayden's ability 'no matter what means he uses'. After a quiet start to the third edition of the IPL, Hayden made a blistering 93 off 43 deliveries to kickstart his campaign.[20]

He was strongly criticized by the BCCI and former Pakistan team captain Wasim Akram for reportedly calling India a third world country.[24] Back home after a 2–0 series defeat by India, Hayden spoke about what he perceived to be poor ground conditions and inordinate delays during the matches "that happen in Third World countries".[25] However, Hayden defended his remarks.[26]

On 13 January 2009, Hayden held a press conference at the Gabba and officially announced his retirement from representative cricket.[4][27] The announcement followed a series of relatively poor performances in New Zealand and South Africa's tour of Australia, in which he failed to pass fifteen runs in nine innings.[28] Paying tribute on his retirement, Hayden was hailed by teammates Ricky Ponting[29] and Justin Langer as being the greatest ever opener from Australia.[30] Hayden was recognised as statistically the best opener ever produced by the country.[31]

Hayden was appointed by the Queensland Government in March 2013[32] to head a tourism campaign aiming to attract more Indian tourists to Australia.[33]

In 2000, Hayden's boat capsized near North Stradbroke Island; he and his two companions (one of whom was Queensland and Australian teammate Andrew Symonds and the other was Trent Butler) were forced to swim a kilometre to safety.[38] Hayden subsequently appeared in a campaign promoting marine safety.[39]

In his spare time, Hayden is a keen cook and occasionally prepares meals for his team-mates while on tour. A collection of his recipes was published in Australia in 2004 as The Matthew Hayden Cookbook. A second book, The Matthew Hayden Cookbook 2, was published in 2006.

Prior to using a Mongoose, Hayden used a Gray-Nicolls bat with a fluorescent pink grip, to highlight and support research into a cure for breast cancer. This is at least in part inspired by his team-mate Glenn McGrath's wife struggle with this illness.[40]

He is married to Kellie Hayden (née Culey), and they have a daughter named Grace (born June 2002), and two sons named Joshua (born 15 April 2005) and Thomas Joseph (born May 2007).[41][42]

Hayden is a devout Roman Catholic and says "When I’m in trouble, I ask: ‘What would Christ do?'" and he crosses himself after reaching a century.[43]

He is patron of Parent Project Australia, a charity fighting for a cure for duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Hayden has also been working with Cricket Australia in raising the profile of cricket among the indigenous population of Australia. In 2010, he captained the Indigenous All-stars XI against the ACA Masters XI as part of the Imparja Cup held in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Hayden is also an Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation (www.aief.com.au).